There are many styles that I know I'll never use [example: FUNKWAH, etc.] and I'd like to just get them out of my style picker list so that it would be easier to select files that I'd never use without having to make my way around them. Perhaps move them to a "Junk" folder or somewhere in the style picker so they won't clog up the list.
I know that I can remove styles from my BB\styles folder and rebuild the list but trying to determine what genre a lot of them are for deletion can be quite the time-consuming challenge due to the 8 character names. The style picker is much more descriptive, so if there's a way to put a check mark or press a delete key or something directly in the style picker list to move the offenders or even delete them from there so that they won't reappear in the next rebuild, that would be a help.
So, I thought I'd check here to see if there is in fact an easier way that someone here might know about.
Using the "Category" filter, it's possible to get Stylepicker to show only a range of styles that belong to a particular genre. Maybe using those quick filters would be useful for you.
I personally find the category filter to be a complete waste of time. There's a few ways you could do this with user categories but I don't know of a way to have it load as a default list. Not too terrible, just means that every time you use the style picker, you then have to select a user category. First clear the filter in the style picker and then save it as a user category. This will give you a complete style list which you can then remove individual styles with a right click "remove highlighted style from current user category".
Another thing that you can do which can be another handy way to organise things is to save the style list to clipboard. This will create a tab delimited file showing all columns. For example, you could create a list that shows ONLY a specific genre as it's labelled in the style picker - something the category filter does not do.
Let's say I only want styles in the genre that is actually labelled as "medium rock". Open the delimited file in Excel or whatever, sort by genre and then on the left column you will have all the 8char file names. Copy them to a TXT file named "medium rock" and save in folder bb\Data\StylePicker\User Categories. At the very top of the text file put "MEMO=Medium Rock" (without the quotes). This will now show up as a user category.
You can always move the styles you are sure you will never use from the style folder into a new folder you create (so you don't lose them - just in case). Call it OutOfStyle or anything you want. Then re-build the style picker window.
If you ever get curious, you can still manually load the style into BiaB and give it a listen.
I'm sure there are other solutions to your question, but this is the first thing I thought of.
I believe I found a workable (for now) answer that doesn't take too much time. It's still a work in progress to nail down exactly what I want, but I thought I'd post my possible solution in case anyone is interested in doing the same thing. If anyone tries this method, I'd appreciate it if you could let me know if you find an easier, better, alternate or additional option way.
I modified the Style Picker Category > Show All Categories listing to show the categories that I want by doing the following:
Close BIAB Goto [your drive] BB\Data\ and find stylz_kategories_MENU.txt file and make a copy just in case....... Open the stylz_kategories_MENU.txt file and remove the categories and names that you want to exclude in the Style Picker All Categories list. Apparently the category names are in the dashed lines and the categories are listed underneath, like this:
------------------------------ COUNTRY STYLES ------------------------------ EVERYTHING COUNTRY$Country Country Ballad$Country Ballad Country Classic$Country Classic Country Contemporary$Country Contemporary $$ More... ------------------------------ MORE COUNTRY STYLES ------------------------------ Boom Chick$Boom Chick Rockabilly$Rockabilly Spaghetti Western$Spaghetti Western Country Swing$Country Swing Country Waltz$Country Waltz $$end ------------------------------ TRADITIONAL/WORLD STYLES ------------------------------ Bluegrass$Bluegrass Celtic$Celtic Folk$Folk World$World $$ More... ------------------------------ BLUEGRASS ------------------------------ Bluegrass Waltz$Bluegrass Waltz
Save the file with the exact same file name stylz_kategories_MENU.txt Restart BIAB. In the StylePicker under Options > Set StylePicker Options, uncheck the box on the setting of "Default display should include all styles (available and N/A not available)"
On my installation of 2026 the only main categories listed were now the ones that I saved in the .txt file. I did not do a rebuild, and I'm holding off on that until I'm sure that everything will be working ok so far.
I'm going to do some fine tuning as time allows by changing some other things in that file and perhaps one or more of the other .txt files in that BB\Data area, but this is the starting point for me.
***Please make a copy of any files that you change before you begin and proceed with caution, as I don't know yet how these changes affect anything else in the program or workflow. YMMV
Thanks, I will play around with it. But I think it might be difficult since I found the categorisation not being very clear, they seem to mixed into each other, So if I remove a category that I am certain that I dont want, it still may hold several styles that I would want to keep and that I would have categorised differently. (maybe I can remove something, who knows).
BIAB 2026, Studio Pro 8, Song Master Pro, Win11 Home. i7-9700K CPU, 32GB, ESI MAYA44eX, ZOOM UAC-2, Guitar Pro 8, Transcribe, (EZKeys2, EZD3, SD3, EZBass, EZMix3) Amateur: fiddle, guitar, vocal, beginner on bass.
Just fyi, I have found that my Style Picker list does not display all the styles in the .txt list. It shows the first screen full of categories but not the full list. More work to do.....
I can cut one lower case line item and paste below a different ALL CAPS category successfully. (So far).
EXAMPLE: If I cut Boom Chick$Boom Chick from the MORE COUNTRY category in my example in my previous post and paste it into the COUNTRY category, it successfully now shows up in the COUNTRY category in BIAB.
This should give the opportunity to re-categorize according to personal preference. Still a work in progress.
Just fyi, I have found that my Style Picker list does not display all the styles in the .txt list. It shows the first screen full of categories but not the full list. More work to do.....
Just a note to anyone trying to accomplish the same task, the display problem here was solved by deleting some $$end and $$More tags in the style category line items in the .txt file. It seems that $$More forces a subwindow and $$end ends the list in the subwindow. When those tags are moved and / or deleted with some experimentation, I now have full screen with two columns listing all of my styles that are only in the categories that I wanted.
I played around with it also and it seems to work OK. If you really spend some time on it, you should be able to tailor the Category drop down exactly the way you want to on an individual basis.
I DO HIGHLY recommend that you make a backup copy of the stylz_kategories_MENU.txt file just in case you need to revert to the original.
Of course this begs the question PGMusic. Why name it kategories instead of categories. Is that a Canadian thing?
Asking for a friend.
Good job BluegrassPicker
Last edited by Joseph Land; 01/24/2602:35 PM.
BIAB2026 Windows 10 Pro (Never Windows 11!) WA6NCB
Well, it looks like so far it's success. I did a Rebuild and it didn't affect my new, improved, customized Style Picker All Categories hack experiment.
All of the categories and subcategories and chosen genres etc. are right where I want them spanning 3 columns on my monitor, the stuff that I'll never use is gone, and everything is still active and unchanged after the Rebuild. I'm a happy Picker.
PS, I made a copy of the entire BB\Data folder at the beginning, just in case.............
That's a really great solution BluegrassPicker. I like it! I wasn't aware that it was possible to do this. You've taught me something.
One thing to watch out for is that sometimes BIAB updates, automatically modify files. I'm not sure that this happens with stylz_kategories_MENU.txt but it is possible given that PG Music often update this kind of search information. To protect your work (if you haven't done this already), I suggest you make a copy of your modified file so that you can easily recreate it if ever it gets overwritten.
Thanks, Noel Good thought on the updates. I made a copy at the outset of the BB\Data folder and I've been making incremental copies of the stylz_kategories_MENU.txt-1-2-3 etc. etc. file (with progress notes) as I've been working with this so I can go backwards just in case.......... I think I'll make a backup of those as well.
@BluegrassPicker this is BRILLIANT!!! I get so tired of scrolling through 14 years of style additions and not being able to exclude styles like jazz and polka and klezmer. I have always hoped PGM would improve the search feature to allow EXCLUSION of certain genres but for now, your solution seems like a grand slam homerun! THANK YOU!!!
I found that with my 3 columns of styles listed on the screen, when I moved the mouse over to the 3rd column the columns on the left disappeared so I couldn't make a selection back over in the 2nd column.
The solution that worked for me is I put the $$ More... statement after my first priority list of styles that filled up my first column. That forced all of the other styles that I rarely use or use much less in a new column, and that new column had arrows at the top and bottom that allows the list in that column to scroll up and down through all the remaining categories and styles lists. Works for me. Some of you might have far more styles than I do so you might have to get creative with the $$ More... and $$ end... statements to manipulate the lists, windows and columns. I just experimented to find what worked and didn't.
Next on my list (one of these days) is to find a way to put just the RealDrum styles such as -NSEV8^1.STY , -NSEV8^3.STY etc. etc. et al into a category all of their own. They currently are tagged as being in the Country Classic genre along with many other styles. If anyone has an idea of a quick and easy way to re-classify a style, I'd be very interested.
One thing to watch out for is that sometimes BIAB updates, automatically modify files. I'm not sure that this happens with stylz_kategories_MENU.txt but it is possible given that PG Music often update this kind of search information. To protect your work (if you haven't done this already), I suggest you make a copy of your modified file so that you can easily recreate it if ever it gets overwritten.
Great catch Noel! I was getting ready to post that when I saw your warning!
Just FYI, I found that the modification to the stylz_kategories_MENU.txt file in the BB\Data folder also affects the appearance of the styles list in the Realband program without any further copying or manipulation. One and done.
I am wondering if anyone thinks that a post with a step-by-step instruction in the user-user tips section of the forum would be helpful to others who might be interested but are not frequently visiting this area? I'd be glad to do it if anyone thought it would be helpful to others.
Just FYI, I found that the modification to the stylz_kategories_MENU.txt file in the BB\Data folder also affects the appearance of the styles list in the Realband program without any further copying or manipulation. One and done.
I am wondering if anyone thinks that a post with a step-by-step instruction in the user-user tips section of the forum would be helpful to others who might be interested but are not frequently visiting this area? I'd be glad to do it if anyone thought it would be helpful to others.
Bluegrass Picker: I think that would be a good idea. Myself, I have amassed 14,307 styles over the past 20+ years. I probably use 10 of them regularly. I found your tip quite useful and perhaps others will as well.
BIAB2026 Windows 10 Pro (Never Windows 11!) WA6NCB
Add another vote of support to place your findings in the Tips and Tricks forum. Great idea and quite beneficial for many who prefer only specific style genres.
BIAB & RB2026 Win.(Audiophile), Windows 10 Pro & Windows 11, Cakewalk Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Session Keys Grand S & Electric R, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M, Pioneer Active Monitors.
I like the caution that bluegrasspicker correctly put in his suggestion. Before putting this method in the Tips and Tricks Forum, is everyone sure there aren’t any negative ramifications? Everything is working correctly?
BIAB 2026 Win Audiophile. Software: Fender Studio One 8, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Presonus Quantom HD8 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
You can either (1) backup the existing file, (2) copy and paste the text to a Notepad text file and save it with another name (3) or even past to a Word or Libre Write document.
BIAB2026 Windows 10 Pro (Never Windows 11!) WA6NCB
Posted with many cautions and disclaimers. I'm open to edit according to any suggestions.
Thanks to all of you for your help on issues that I've had over the years with BIAB while I've been lurking. This is my way of paying back and forward.
<< If anyone tries this method, I'd appreciate it if you could let me know if you find an easier, better, alternate or additional option way. >>
There is an easier alternate option that doesn’t require modifying the program, or moving or removing any existing styles.
BIAB includes a built-in approach similar to Lee’s User Categories that may be more intuitive and quicker to access. It’s the Recently Used / Favorites dialog window. It can be set as the default view in the StylePicker and is accessible from the Chord Chart, the MultiPicker, and via shortcut.
I believe it’s a cleaner and safer way to work from a smaller, frequently used set of styles.
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